the same stars will shine
by dawsons
Summary: The five times Finn and Rachel disagreed over whom their daughter would take after, and the one time that they didn't. Oneshot/drabble.


a/n: Requested by an anonymous user. Title taken from Jimmy Buffett's "Bigger than the Both of Us".

* * *

i.

It's a little while after her appointment that they have their first disagreement who their daughter will take after.

"I think she's gonna be like me," Finn says offhandedly as the doctor heads outside to discuss something with the receptionist. It's a passing comment out of nowhere, really, but it doesn't stop her from glancing at him, frowning.

"Like you, huh?" she says, almost in a disagreeing tone.

He shrugs. "It's just a feeling that I get."

Rachel purses her lips as she swings her legs off the seat. "I beg to differ. I think she's going to be like _me_," she tells him pointedly, and the look on her face tells him she's mentally preparing a list of reasons why.

It's amusing how she takes the littlest of things seriously, and Finn can't stop himself from chuckling as he gets to his feet and helps her out of the chair, cutting her off. Immediately she's frowning and he knows she's wondering how he possibly finds any of this funny, so he presses his lips softly against his cheek, and her expression softens.

"Never mind what I said," he says, holding her hand tightly in his as they walk out of the office.

It's too early to have a say, after all.

* * *

ii.

Drama flicks aren't really his thing, and they're bearable when he has his fill of them once a week, but the idea of watching one right now seems a little too over to him.

"Babe, we don't have to do this tonight," Finn protests from the bed as she sorts through their collection of DVDs in the rack. "I know you've been feeling weepy all week, but I'd really rather that you go to bed and get some rest."

"Who said anything about hormones?" she says happily (he thinks just from her tone that his case is justified). "Besides, it's only seven and I'm feeling quite rested, seeing that my leave started yesterday. A viewing of a movie of my choice is in session."

Finn scrambles for any logical-sounding reason in his mind. "I have work to do," he whines.

She turns around at this and raises her eyebrows at him, smirking. "Tomorrow is a Sunday, Finn."

Rachel has a point there, but he can't help but sigh because there definitely isn't a way to get out of this, and she giggles as she pops a CD into the player. So he settles for playing with her hair as she presses her cheek to his chest while they watch _The Mirror Has Two Faces_. It actually isn't a bad movie, he thinks, as the story progresses, and at some point she starts to cry.

"We were like them," she mutters, sniffling into his shirt. "Rose and Gregory, I mean."

"Yeah," he says, frowning slightly, "but he's sort of an ass for marrying her for all the wrong purposes, isn't he?"

"People have their reasons –"

"He has a crappy motive then," Finn insists. "But I'm nothing like that man, alright? I've got different reasons."

Rachel looks up at him. "You did the same thing in our senior year of high school," she says softly, referencing Gregory's walk out.

"I did. But you were in the wrong, and I think you know why," he reminds her.

She of course remembers what he's talking about, and so she doesn't speak another word until the beginning of Gregory's lecture tour comes on, and at that moment she reaches up and kisses him lightly. She's five months along now and it's getting pretty hard for her to do that these days, so he leans down as well, meeting her lips.

"What's your reason again?" she murmurs.

"Not just reason, but reasons. I could write a list if you wanted me to, but that wouldn't work out either because it would be hard to keep track." He pauses, shrugging a bit. "But they'd all end up meaning the same thing anyway because I love you."

Rachel beams when she hears this, her eyes shining, and she leans in close for another kiss. They proceed to watch the rest of the movie in silence, until she starts nodding off, and he's pretty sure she's fallen asleep. He smiles a little at this, combing through her hair calmly again as he reaches out for the remotes with his other hand, turning the television and the player off at the scene of Rose's epiphany.

The room falls into darkness except for the sliver of moonlight peeking through the curtains. Finn yawns and nestles further into his pillow, closing his eyes. He's actually glad Rachel made him watch _The Mirror Has Two Faces_, even if he hadn't exactly agreed to it at first.

It surprises him though when he feels her shake him gently. He thought she'd fallen asleep. "Finn," she says. "Finn."

His eyes flutter open and he peers down at her. "Hmm?"

"I have a reason why I did this, you know," Rachel tells him quietly, her hands tugging on his shirt.

"And what would that be?" he says, frowning a bit.

There's a sharp intake of breath from her before she responds. "I made us watch a Barbra classic because I wanted our daughter to have the same ambitions," she confesses. "To become an acclaimed singer and actress as she was, I mean. I chose _The Mirror Has Two Faces_ in the hopes that she'd share the same dreams."

Finn tries his best to hold back a grin. "This is still about what we talked about in the office months ago, isn't it?"

She nods. "You're not mad, are you?" she asks him in a rueful tone.

"Of course not." He laughs and brushes his lips past her forehead. She smiles when he does this, and he surmises it's out of immense relief. "It isn't really something to make a big deal about, so no harm done. The film was great, actually."

"Really?"

"There's one thing you have to agree to, though," he says, smirking, and she raises her eyebrows in askance.

The next evening, she (begrudgingly) consents to watch _The Longest Yard_ with him.

* * *

iii.

When Rachel hits the seventh month mark, she starts buying secondhand cassette tapes from the old music store downtown.

He sees the box labels for them among her work for that new musical they're planning to show at Imperial Theatre down on 45th Street, so he doesn't really bother. That is, until one night as they're both drifting to sleep he thinks he hears music playing.

He withdraws the arm that's draped around her shoulder, propping himself up with his elbows. "You hear that?" he says, frowning.

"Hear what?" she mumbles into her pillow.

"The music." He strains his ears, trying to listen to it. It's faint, but it's there alright. "I can hear it playing like it's right in this room."

"Oh, that." Rachel looks at him with tired eyes. "Remember what I bought from Mr. Ethan at his rundown records shop?"

"Yeah, what about them?"

"They were tapes of Barbra Streisand's greatest hits," she says.

Finn half-smiles, amused. "Rach, you've got copies of those in CDs, in the computer, and even vinyl records. Why would you want cassettes?"

"Using iPods wouldn't work," she tells him, "so I thought of using tapes. Cassette players are the only ones small and portable enough to use."

He's confused. "Wait, does that mean you've been having sleeping problems?" he asks.

Rachel shakes her head slowly. "No silly," she answers him. "It's for the baby." She reaches for something at her side and true enough, there's a cassette player in her hand.

It only adds to his confusion. "But why?" he sputters.

Despite her lethargy, she actually smiles. "I'm doing this again in the hopes that Barbra's music would inspire her to reach for greater heights and for stardom, very much like the way I am doing now." Rachel says all of this in a matter-of-fact tone that it somehow justifies her basis for doing it.

He gives her a look. "You just won't give up, won't you?" he says, disbelief tinged in his voice.

His wife just gives him another tired smile before turning in her place to look away from him, tucking the player in front of her stomach. He just sighs and goes back to bed. It's crazy how she's taking this as a competition of some sorts, and he wonders how he'll ever get a chance to get back at her, if only as a tease.

Finn doesn't need to wait, though, because eventually he hears her complain of how the baby's kicking like a football player when the next song comes on, and he chuckles.

* * *

iv.

Finn isn't exactly good when it comes to preparing food and stuff, but he's pretty sure he makes grilled cheese sandwiches as well as his mother can.

He knows this because the moment he sets a plate full of them on the table, Rachel and Lily both leave their rooms and head straight for the kitchen. He can't really say this for their daughter, though – she's stumbling and trying to get up on the way, and he laughs as he walks to where she is and swoops her into his arms. She immediately bursts into a fit of giggles. He thinks it's the most adorable laugh a one year old can have.

Rachel's beaming at this, and she bites into the food. "Just exactly what I needed," she tells him, as he approaches the table.

"What makes you say that?"

"It's the perfect snack to indulge in before I start on the work I've missed." The smile on her face fades a bit when she says this, and he sighs, because he knows what it feels like, although not exactly two months of backlog on papers.

"You look tired," Finn says softly. "I'll sort it all out for you."

She starts shaking her head. "No, I couldn't possibly impose –"

"I'm helping you tonight, and that's final." He gives her a firm expression. She smiles again, and they all proceed to eat around the table in amicable silence. Then again, he can't really say this for Lily, because she's loudly shrieking and squealing as they both try to get her to eat 'Daddy's yummy food'.

Rachel's doing the dishes just for this afternoon, so he marches off to her study to get started. Rachel's the directress and the lead female star now of an upcoming revival of _Jersey Boys_, so it's double the work because she has to look through the scripts and songs and decide what they'll do for those and act out some of those scenes herself. He knows because she'd told him a few nights after they'd first gotten married, and the (slightly unnecessary) information pays off when he sorts out the papers filed in the wrong order and pulls out the blank ones.

Finn isn't halfway there yet when he hears the clanking of metal in a strange musical pattern outside. He doesn't really mind it in the first few minutes, but when the sound persists he shakes his head and sets down the papers he's holding, pushing the door open and approaching the kitchen.

The sight of Lily pounding away at a tray in the dishwasher with a fork and a spoon immediately greets him. Rachel's standing a few meters away, smiling. What makes it strange is that she's doing nothing to stop it – surely she's aware that their daughter can destroy that tray, right? He takes a few steps forward, intent, until it sinks in for him, what Lily's doing. His face then breaks into a huge smile.

"She ought to take lessons if she'd want to be as good as her father," Rachel whispers, walking toward his side.

He wraps an arm around her shoulder. "When you say she should take lessons, I think you meant for her to study with me, didn't you?" he says in a serious tone. "I'd hate to imagine that she'd pick it up with a creepy old dude in an abandoned music store or God knows where." Rachel can't help but laugh.

It's only when Lily stops drumming that she tells him in a low voice that he wins this round, and he's pretty sure he's never grinned this much before.

* * *

v.

"Four years old, and she won a children's ballet competition," Rachel tells Finn in an ecstatic voice. The internet's crappy in the hotel he's in and he can barely hear above the noise that's coming from the lobby downstairs (they promised soundproof rooms and additional support for Skype calls), but he thinks his wife's joy can't be any clearer.

"That's great!" he says, grinning. "How was she during the contest?"

"She performed every step with timing and grace, even more than my own expectations," she says proudly. "Her win kind of rubbed it into that arrogant child's face, didn't it?"

"Oh, right," Finn says, remembering the girl who'd bullied their daughter during ballet class. "What place did _she _get?"

"None."

"Right in the kisser then," he says immediately, and she frowns at him.

"Finn, you're miles apart from us, but please don't use crass language."

He shrugs. "I didn't even say a bad word, you know."

"Even then! You might influence Lily and all our future children to curse like the way Noah does." The stern look on her face eventually fades, though, when he doesn't respond, and she clears her throat. "But enough of that. I do believe you'd like to see your daughter, don't you?"

"O-Of course."

Rachel's back in less than a minute, Lily in tow. She's still dressed in her ballerina getup and her hair arranged into pigtails and frowning, but once she catches sight of him on the computer screen her expression changes into that of a toothy grin.

"Daddy!" she squeals, and Finn's pretty sure he would have hugged her at that moment if he could. "I won, I won!"

"I know baby, I know. You swept them all away, didn't you?"

Lily nods. "I did. I wish you could have been there, though." She pouts a bit, and it melts his heart, but it's kind of impossible to feel frustrated that he's so far away from them now, so he keeps smiling.

"I'll watch a video Mommy got of you when I get back there next Thursday," he tells her, "but you wouldn't mind showing me a bit of what you did on the stage right now, won't you?"

She nods again, and through the camera he watches his daughter run from one end of the room to the other with so much poise, lifting her feet a bit as she does it, and he thinks it's a small wonder Lily is as graceful as her mother is.

"Look at you! You're better than mommy," he says. Lily toothily grins, and Rachel frowns, but that's gone as the three of them burst into laughter.

A few hours later, though, when Lily has been tucked to bed already, Finn tells his wife the one thing that's been on his mind.

"She takes after you, after all," he tells her, and Rachel winks at him before saying goodnight.

* * *

vi.

"She's amazing, isn't she?" Kurt remarks gently.

Their daughter Lily is ten years old already and she's having solos of her own at this concert her school has put up for Family Day, and he thinks he's never heard anything so beautiful like his wife's voice in his life before. He's afraid to tear his eyes away from Lily as she's singing, afraid to miss a thing. So Finn settles for nodding sideways at his stepbrother as he grips Rachel's hand.

They've both discussed that neither of them would talk during Lily's time on stage, so it surprises him when she leans closer to him and starts whispering.

"Maybe a little of both of us," she says, and it surprises him again that he knows what she's talking about.

He only smiles.

* * *

a/n: Thoughts? Because reviews are very much appreciated! Leave some.


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